The sports thread

Anyone here into sports? Those College Football playoff games sure were fun!!! Looking forward to the championship. And the NFL playoffs are starting soon! Question for the people from the UK, do you guys watch American Football and is it aired often? I know BPL is huge but was wondering if the NFL or college football has caught on there.

Yeah, NFL is pretty big over here. Sky Sports (our equivalent of ESPN) show games every Sunday night, and there's an interactive option to see big plays from all of the games which are on - so people have easy access to seeing their chosen team in action.

The viewing figures are high for TV, and the games at Wembley (which has a 90,000 capacity) are usually a sell-out and the atmosphere is very lively. I went to see my team, Minnesota Vikings manage a (very rare!) win against the Steelers there in 2013.

Anyone here into sports? Those College Football playoff games sure were fun!!! Looking forward to the championship. And the NFL playoffs are starting soon! Question for the people from the UK, do you guys watch American Football and is it aired often? I know BPL is huge but was wondering if the NFL or college football has caught on there.

I'm actually watching Man City rout West Brom in a snowstorm right now on NBC Sports Network.

As a Cowboys fan, sure I'm excited that they're back in the postseason. But it's hard to get to stoked about the NFL playoffs when you have a Carolina club that went 1-8-1 over a ten game stretch in the field.

Indyboy,I make several trips across the Wabash to see Sprint car races in your state. But I've never seen any "ball" sports over there. Although I have seen the Indiana High School basketball Museum in New Castle. That place is awesome!

I'm actually watching Man City rout West Brom in a snowstorm right now on NBC Sports Network.

As a Cowboys fan, sure I'm excited that they're back in the postseason. But it's hard to get to stoked about the NFL playoffs when you have a Carolina club that went 1-8-1 over a ten game stretch in the field.

Indyboy,I make several trips across the Wabash to see Sprint car races in your state. But I've never seen any "ball" sports over there. Although I have seen the Indiana High School basketball Museum in New Castle. That place is awesome!

Really? That's awesome. I'm really not into racing. I mainly love basketball and football. But hey, the panthers won tonight!

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Originally Posted by SirNapsALot

Yeah, NFL is pretty big over here. Sky Sports (our equivalent of ESPN) show games every Sunday night, and there's an interactive option to see big plays from all of the games which are on - so people have easy access to seeing their chosen team in action.

The viewing figures are high for TV, and the games at Wembley (which has a 90,000 capacity) are usually a sell-out and the atmosphere is very lively. I went to see my team, Minnesota Vikings manage a (very rare!) win against the Steelers there in 2013.

That's so cool! I've always wanted to visit the UK and see a major soccer (football) game there.

That's so cool! I've always wanted to visit the UK and see a major soccer (football) game there.

It's well worth doing. I've had a Season Ticket at Man United since I was young, and seeing football live is such a different atmosphere and experience to seeing it on TV; especially where rivalries are concerned. I know that's true of most sports, but some of the rivalries here are so intense that they have to be experienced first-hand.

Aside from the major teams, it's worth going to watch some of the teams in the lower leagues play. There's a lot of passion and history in some of the small town football clubs, and some of the stadiums date back to the Victorian era!

The NFL season is over for me as a Bears fan. The only teams left are mostly those I despise.

Packers? As a Bears fan, I have to hate them, just on principle.

LIons? Filthy disgusting team. Suh and Raiola shouldn't even be playing. The coaches must approve if not encourage their dirty play, so they should be gone as well.

Seattle? Ugly uniforms, prancing around like spear-toting tribesmen in buttflaps whenever they succesfully complete a play, trash talking, home crowd taking pride in excessive noise... in the old days, officials used to call a penalty on the home team if the crowd refused to get quiet enough for teams to play.

Ravens? carpetbaggers. Abandoned Cleveland.

Cardinals? More carpetbaggers. Abandoned first Chicago, then St. Louis.

Patriots? Everybody hates the Patriots.

Cowboys? I used to hate the Cowboys. Now I just don't care.

Not even sure who else is in it, and I don't care enough to look it up.

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Generally, I like college football. I like it less with the new 'playoff'. For one thing, the playoff games are on cable, which I don't have, so I'm completely indifferent. For two, the old way was more inclusive. Every bowl game meant something to somebody, and as many as half a dozen teams could claim they're 'the best'. Fans and sportswriters had plenty to jaw about after the season. I would think the sportswriters especially should be sorry to see a playoff.

Most of the other bowl games are on cable now, too, so <yawn>. Back in the day, I could set up 3 TV's on my bar New Year's Day and watch multiple games all day long on free broadcast TV. At the end of it, I was so tired of football that a few months off seemed like a good thing.
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At least I have the Blackhawks. Most of the games are on cable channels, but one, sometimes two a week are broadcast free on WGN. For important games, I can always hoof it over to the local bar or Maxx Junior's house.

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I'd like to be more of a rugby fan, but there's so little of it available here. College championships are often broadcast, both 7's and union. Occasionally I can get some overseas games streaming. A few years ago, the Churchill Cup finals were here in a south suburb of Chicago. Not meaningful in any sort of championship, and the national teams didn't send all their best guys, but Junior and I still had a marvelous time sitting only a few rows from the action.

New England Patriots gonna win the Super Bowl with the Patriot Missile arm of Tom Brady.
Boston Red Sox May win the World Series if they can get a viable team back they are imploding from within in my opinion.
University Of Michigan Football team will be the team to watch next season with Harbaugh at the helm.
Other than that may the best team win I have my favorites just hope for a actual game for a change and good sportsmanship from all teams and good behavior from all fans and tailgaters at the venues.